Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as a Whirling Dervish

Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted experience total immersion for a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons character who embraces the culture they’re embedded with in order to study. The Whirling Dervish is a 5E D&D experiment of mixing barbarian and rogue abilities from a mechanical point of view. From a roleplaying and story element we talk about a stranger in a strange land they come to call home. Let’s get into it.

Behind the CBG — Whirling Dervish

Every CBG we create considers the journey as much as the final outcome. We aim to present a guide suitable for any level of 5E D&D play whether you’re pursuing an epic campaign from start to finish, starting beyond 1st level or choosing a character for a one shot. Then we take those concepts and develop an NPC or creature version of the character build for DMs to incorporate into their games. All of this gets packaged up and laid out in a PDF you can find over at Dungeon Master’s Guild. We’ve got dozens of pay what you want products at DMG, many of them best sellers so if you want to check those out start with the Whirling Dervish here.

All about the character story

Each CBG starts with a character concept sticking to a particular schtick, from the Mind Breaker’s psyche crushing smites to the Whirling Dervish’s embrace of new traditions and connection with their own primal self. Sometimes puns and pop culture references instigate the creation of a CBG too. At every step of the way we considered options for using fear and mental assault against their foes as they carve their own path to the top.

For us it’s important to consider who these characters are as individuals and why they follow these particular paths. One special thing to note with this CBG is while we always aim to make the journey to 20th level as practical as possible — none of these characters “come online” after an awkward slog through many levels — the Whirling Dervish’s eclectic disciplines powerfully converge at 10th level while thematically things happen a bit earlier at 6th level. From this point the rest of the way to 20th level they gain a number of small bumps to help really refine their technique.

The Whirling Dervish is another relatively early CBG for us and going back for another look at these makes it very clear how important the characters’ stories are to the direction of their progression. When we say these characters develop from a narrative perspective the idea is focused on the player experience, so it’s not so much about long term goals or potential quests to incorporate into a campaign. Rather we try to establish a clear foundation who the character was before their life as an adventurer to give players something to hang their own roleplaying experiences upon.

I recall feeling particularly excited about the Whirling Dervish because of this narrative foundation. Barbarians and rogues both fall into a sort of easy to stereotype bucket either as an angry outlander or edgy orphan and the whole team felt like we found a really fun way to get around those tropes. The background choice of anthropologist, which I believe was pretty new at the time from Tomb of Annihilation, tied everything together in a neat way.

“Played a character based on this during the pandemic, and it was a blast. Nice to have an alternative flavor to “rage.”” — Whirling Dervish CBG review from Dungeon Masters Guild

Starting with the Party Machine CBG coming very soon we’re taking things to another level. You’ll still see a video with a breakdown of the guide and ideas for Dungeon Masters on how to incorporate the concept in your games as an NPC. In addition we’re creating encounters to spotlight these NPCs and creatures along with customized maps and packaging these together with our usual collection of 5E content like new magic items, monsters, feats, subclasses and more through our monthly Patreon rewards. Supporters there at any level will receive these rewards and since we publish them directly on the Patreon page even new supporters can get instant access to dozens of modules. We’ll also be creating a VTT package of resources including the map and tokens for these new creatures. Learn more about all these benefits here.

Whirling Dervish NPC for 5E D&D

Full disclosure — the NPCs and creatures we make in CBGs are some of my favorite bits of 5E D&D content to create. We step back and look at the character build to find the standout features that feel like signature abilities. The juice! From there we consider what sort of person or people would possess or gain these abilities and build a stat block around them. More often than not the section of a CBG For Dungeon Masters presents a generic creature.

After all these years creating content through Nerdarchy I must admit creating creatures is my favorite thing to do the same way Nerdarchist Ted loves making magic items. Hopefully what I put together is fun and useful for DMs out there. The majority of the 60+ creatures in our CBG collection were created by me and it’s fun looking back to see the progression. Early on these NPCs were basically straight up ports of the PC versions but we’ve since gotten much broader with the interpretations.

Like any nonmagical humanoid melee-oriented creature creating a stat block gets trickier as challenge rating goes up. Wielding conventional weapons without tacking on a bunch of traits to make the creature more viable as a threat gets quite difficult. But with the Whirling Dervish I felt a bit more freedom to cut loose. The whole concept is a warrior of tremendous speed and a blur of flashing blades so a large number of attacks, some very useful reactions and a single passive trait make them incredibly dangerous to approach.

Sacred Swordmaster. For the whirling dervish, the prayer of blades is much more than a fighting technique. It is a way to honor and display their beliefs. Once the ritual begins, the dervish is a deadly vessel of their faith

“1000 Cuts. A creature that starts their turn within 5 feet of the dervish takes 3 (1d6) slashing damage.”

If your next 5E D&D game needs an entertainer who looks at primal rage and sneak attacks through a different lens — whether you’re the DM or a player — check out the Whirling Dervish Character Build Guide here.

*Featured image — Samut, the Swift, is a young planeswalker from Amonkhet — a setting you can find out more about for your own 5E D&D games right here on Nerdarchy the Website. She is a renowned warrior, and specializes in speed-based magic. Sounds like a fantastic character upon which to draw inspiration for your own 5E D&D Whirling Dervish character! This particular image is from the Samut, The Tested card in the MTG Hour of Devastation expansion. [Illustration by Aleksi Briclot]

New videos every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel here